Who we are
Adroit has a small, exceptionally high quality team of specialist consultants. All are experts in their fields and have a wealth of experience and knowledge gained from years of experience of working in the public sector, in industry and in academia. In addition to our core team, we can also draw on a network of associates and freelance consultants to provide the full range of skills and expertise that may be needed to meet our clients’ needs on specific assignments.
Adroit Economics comprises the following members:
• Dr Steve Sheppard
• Jamie Fotheringham
• Nicola Jones
• Michael Kitson
• Carys Roberts
Dr Steve Sheppard – Managing Director
Dr Steve Sheppard has a PhD from the University of Cambridge in Economic Development and Planning and is a specialist regeneration economist with over 20 years experience in the fields of economics, regeneration, development and planning – working in consultancy, real estate and academia. He specialises in technology, innovation, enterprise and infrastructure projects.
During his career, Steve has undertaken assignments for a range of high-profile clients that include the DTI, most of the English RDAs, universities, research organisations, local partnerships, the European Commission, and the World Bank.
Steve brings a unique blend of experience – policy and strategy; economics; development and planning; project feasibility; financial and economic appraisal; science and technology; inward investment and marketing; programme evaluation; and organisational structure and change. Steve is a leading advisor on regional and sub regional ICT strategies, programmes and projects.
Some of Steve’s assignments include:
- Review of the Highlands and Islands Innovation System for Highlands & Islands Enterprise
- Feasibility Study and Green Book appraisal of a Strategic Bio-energy Research Park in the SE of England, for Renewables East
- Preparation of a Business Plan for Newcastle’s flagship Science City development, for the City Council, University of Newcastle and ONE Northeast
- Health Technology Industries Study for Yorkshire Forward
- Economic Impact study of ICTs on Regional Economies for e-skills UK
- UK-India Science and Innovation strategy for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department of Trade and Industry
- Technology Workspace Study for Manchester Enterprises
- Student Enterprise Incubation project for Cheshire and Warrington LSC
- Assessing the Impact of the Northeast’s Innovation Infrastructure and preparing an Investment Framework, for ONE Northeast
- Contributing to a NESTA publication on Innovation places
- Evaluating Nottingham Bio City, for emda
- Mapping and Advising on Future Investment in Incubators across the Northeast, for ONE Northeast
- Evaluation of a Pilot project applying lean manufacturing techniques to financial and business services organisations, for The Manufacturing Institute and the Northwest Development Agency
- Manufacturing Strategy for the Northwest of England, for The Manufacturing Institute
- Investment Strategy for Rural Workspace in Lancashire
- Business Case for Deployment of Next Generation (broadband access) in County Durham
- Regional ICT Strategies for two thirds of the UK
- Evidence Making the Case for ICT Business Support to BERR/Treasury on behalf of all the RDAs
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Jamie Fotheringham – Senior Director
Jamie holds both bachelor and post-graduate degrees in economics and has worked extensively on development projects in the UK and overseas. He has worked in professional consultancy for the last fourteen years and specialises in economic regeneration, evaluation studies and social research. As a professional economist Jamie has also gained a breadth of experience in economic impact assessment, strategy development and financial appraisal, having undertaken a number of Green Book appraisals for major UK and European funded projects.
Jamie has a particular interest in community regeneration and has conducted evaluations of schemes within all major UK regeneration programmes in the last ten years (including SRB, Neighbourhood Renewal, Neighbourhood Management, and New Deal for Communities), and also a range of European programmes.
Recently, Jamie has focussed on issues of skills and employability amongst socially excluded groups, through assignments examining approaches to tackling worklessness and improving labour market participation amongst traditionally ‘hard-to-reach’ groups.
Assignments Jamie has worked on include:
- Evaluation of Worklessness Programmes for Southwark Council and Southwark Alliance
- Kettering and Corby Skills Audit for North Northants Development Agency
- Review of Community Buildings and Services for Darnall Forum
- Evaluation of £33m London Riverside SRB Programme for London Riverside Ltd
- Economic Impact of the Milton Keynes South Midlands Growth Area for Advantage West Midlands
- ESF Co-financing Project Appraisals for London West LSC, London South LSC and Birmingham City Council
- Economic Action Research Planning for Hastings Borough Council
- Business Crime Survey for Wolverhampton City Council
- HM Prison Service - evaluation of IMPACT EU funded training programme for HM Prison Service
- Quality Improvement Agency – Review of Barriers to NVQ Delivery in Custodial Settings
- Successful Regeneration in the North West – development of indicators to benchmark regeneration projects for the North West Development Agency
- Options appraisal and preparation of Heathrow Local Labour Strategy for BAA and LSC London West
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Nicola Jones – Director of Research
Nicola is our Director of Research and has worked on a range of economic and technology projects including economic impact studies, e-government, information and communications technologies (ICTs), innovation & incubation and high-growth/knowledge-based sectors and clusters. Nicola has also worked on a range of economic and social research projects, providing policy and data analysis and managing a team of market researchers.
Nicola’s assignments include:
- Formulating the Cheshire & Warrington Enterprise Strategy, researching workspace specific issues as part of the Regeneris team.
- Formulating a technology workspace strategy for Greater Manchester for Manchester Enterprises.
- Mapping university research teams in the healthcare technology industry sector for Yorkshire Forward
- Economic analysis on behalf of the North West Regional Development Agency to support the analysis of the economy behind the review of the Regional Economic Strategy
- Review of the Gateshead Housing Company for Gateshead Borough Council, specifically interviewing 200+ new tenants as part of a team put together by the Housing Consultancy Partnership
- Auditing the life sciences research strengths of the three universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York for the White Rose Consortium and helping them target these globally to generate additional collaboration and inward investment
- Mapping UK assets in biotech and digital industries for DTI in support of their ‘Attracting Global Entrepreneurs Programme’
- Prospects for digital industries inward investment for Yorkshire Forward
- First of ‘new style’ competitiveness studies (electronics sector) for DTI
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Michael Kitson – Affiliate Director
Michael Kitson is a University Lecturer in Economics for the Judge Business School and the University of Cambridge. He is also Co-Director of the Programme on Regional Innovation at the Cambridge-MIT Institute.
Mike specialises in national and regional innovation and competitiveness; entrepreneurship, labour markets and skills; with particular sector expertise e.g. health technologies, aerospace and others.
Mike’s research and publications include:
- The Competitive Advantage of Regions, Routledge 2006 (edited with R. Martin and P. Tyler)
- ‘The American Economic Model and European Economic Policy’, Regional Studies, Vol. 39.7, October 2005
- ‘Social Capital, Economic Growth and Regional Development’, Regional Studies, Vol 39.8, pp. 1015–1040, November 2005 (with S. Iyer and B. Toh)
- ‘Regional Variations in Competitiveness and the Implications for Regional Policy’ in A. Cosh and A. Hughes (eds), British Enterprise: Surviving, Thriving - or Dying?, ESRC Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, 2007, forthcoming
- Regional Variations in Innovation (Funded by the DTI)
- University- Industry Knowledge Exchange (funded by the ESRC)
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Carys Roberts - Consultant
Carys has over 14 years experience working in technology industries. As a Business and IT graduate with the CIM Marketing Diploma, this experience has been largely customer and end user focused through a number of sales and sales support roles targeting both Public and Commercial sectors.
Carys recently set up her own business providing telephone and desk based research where she worked with Adroit on a couple of projects, including one for the London Development Agency. Following this collaboration Carys is now a full time Consultant for Adroit Economics.
Prior to joining Adroit, Carys worked for a number of SME ICT and IT Marketing companies involved in a range of activities including research, telephone work, client profiling, bid appraisal and responses, support of pilot programmes and project management.
Assignments include:
- Impact Evaluation of LDA/ESF Co-financing Programme, is funded through the European Social Fund (ESF) and the London Development Agency
- ONE North East study to assess the existing role, capacity, quality, effectiveness and potential of innovation infrastructure in the region
- Impact Evaluation of NYNET on behalf of Yorkshire Forward
- Impact of NGA Internet on Inclusion for Manchester Enteprise
- RDA ICT Primes – help present an evidence-based case for including ICT business support as an approved product in the business support simplification process (BSSP) being led by BERR
- Impact evaluation of the LoopEd Youth Dance Moves project run by the Loop Dance Company
- LDA Collage Arts project which provides a range of business support services to stimulate the growth of creative and cultural industries (CCIs) in North London
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Contact Carys on:
m. + 44 (0)7514 090 956
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